Bahrain Victorious wrapped up a golden weekend of racing, with Taylor Knibb claiming her fourth IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship title in Nice, Jelle Geens adding bronze in the men’s race, and Georgia Taylor-Brown closing out the weekend in Karlovy Vary with her first World Triathlon Championship Series triumph in more than three years.
Knibb kicked off the weekend’s racing on Saturday. Exiting the swim in fifth, less than 10 seconds behind the leader, she took the lead early in the 93-kilometre bike. From there, she continued to extend her advantage, reaching the major climb at the famous Col de Vence with a lead of more than six minutes.
While her chasers clawed some of that time back on the descent into town and through the opening stages of the run, Knibb still held a margin of nearly four minutes heading into the half marathon. She maintained a commanding advantage for much of the run to cross the line in 4:19:24.
“This one is very special and I am just very grateful,” Knibb said post-race, adding that she felt she could have done even more over the final few kilometres of the run.
“At the end of the day, I did what I needed to do and so I need to be grateful for that and excited for what’s to come,” she said, with the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona her next major target.
In the men’s race the following day, Geens claimed bronze after putting pressure on the eventual champion with a strong run. Through more than halfway on the bike, he remained inside the top 10 before the technical descents saw him drop two places.
He entered the bike-to-run transition less than two minutes off the podium battle, then surged through the field on the run, moving up 11 places in the opening eight kilometres and climbing as high as second. He held on through the closing stages to claim the final podium spot in 3:52:40.
Fellow Bahrain Victorious athlete Kat Matthews finished a brave 11th among the women after a tough swim, clawing her way up to sixth by the end of the bike. Teammate Marten Van Riel crossed the finish line 19th in the men’s race after exiting the swim in sixth and riding into transition behind Geens. The performances moved Matthews into eighth in the IRONMAN Pro Series standings, while Van Riel sits sixth.
Taylor-Brown bookended the weekend with a victory of her own in Karlovy Vary, securing her first WTCS win since Cagliari in May 2023.
Racing over the Olympic distance, Taylor-Brown exited the 1.5-kilometre swim just 10 seconds off the lead, putting her in position to drive the pace on the 40-kilometre bike. She did exactly that, helping split the field and build an advantage of more than two and a half minutes by the time the front group reached transition.
Onto the 10-kilometre run, Taylor-Brown moved into the lead and never relinquished it, crossing the finish line 36 seconds clear of Taylor Spivey, with Lisa Tertsch completing the podium.
The victory marked Taylor-Brown’s first WTCS win in more than three years and her first Series medal in two years.
“I’m quite emotional about it,” Taylor-Brown said after the race. “I didn’t think I was ever going to get there again to be honest.”
The result provides a timely boost as the season moves towards its biggest championship races.
Bahrain Victorious now turns its attention to the final stretch of the racing calendar and the remaining major targets across triathlon’s leading championships and series.
